What the hell was that noise? It was a high-pitched buzzing...
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
What was it?
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
What was it?
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
What was it!? She finally opened her eyes, closing them with a hiss and turning her face to hide it in her pillow. Ugh, the sun was out and way too bright. She must have forgotten to close her curtains before bed last night. Man! She'd been so tired!
Wait...why was the sun out? The sun shouldn't be out when she woke up. It should still be dark. Her entire day was planned out to the very last second; she was supposed to be up at 4am and then leave by 5am, so she could make it to class in time to settle before her 6am exam. A final exam. No, not just a final exam...the final exam. Her last ever final. After she passed that she could graduate. No, not could, would. She would pass and she would graduate.
With a cry of terror she sat up and grabbed her clock, reading the time and nearly crushing the clock in her trembling grip. It was noon. The exam was over. She'd slept through it and then some. She'd missed it...she'd missed the test...and there was no way to make it up. She was done. Finished. All these years wasted and for what? Sleep? She could sleep when she was dead! That's what she would say when someone told her to quit studying and go to bed. "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" She'd said. The clock smashed as it was thrown against the wall and she scrambled out of bed, her legs getting caught up in the sheet and sending her to the floor. She smacked her head against the front of her nightstand as she hit the ground and hissed with pain, somehow getting to her feet and rubbing at her head. ********, that'd hurt. Maybe if she was quick she could catch her professor before he left and explain the situation. Maybe he'd take pity on her? She was never late; she was the most prompt student he had who was always begging for more to do, more work to do, more credit to earn, more experience to gain. Surely he would take pity on her and let this one time slide? She wouldn't know for sure until she tried, and damn was she going to try. She'd do whatever it took...s**t, she'd sleep with the guy if that's what it took to get him to let her make up the exam.
She really, really, really hoped it didn't come to that.
Clothes were thrown on without any care of what they actually looked like together and her hair as pulled back in lieu of actually brushing it. She didn't even bother with the rest of her morning routine. There was no time. The damn traffic added an extra half an hour onto what would've been a half hour drive! Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT! Would he even be there? She hoped he'd be there. The classroom was right around the corner, she ran to it as fast as she humanly could. Where were the magic powers when she needed them? She needed super-human speed right now. She needed to be able to fly. She needed to be able to phase, teleport, shove, even cut through the crowds of students around her. Heh. Imagine how easy things would be if she could cut down everyone in her path like a farmer reaping wheat with a scythe. Finally she made it to the room and shoved through the door. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so, SO sorry! Please give me another chance! I promise I...won't..." She panted heavily as she stood in the now open doorway, one hand on the doorknob and the other supporting her against the door frame. The room was completely empty, not even a bit of paper left on the large desk in the front of the room. His office was closed and most likely locked; he never closed his office if he was in the room or coming back in just a few minutes. If the door to his office was closed that could only mean one thing.
She was too late. Her life was over before it could even truly begin. She'd failed, she'd messed up everything. She'd have to go back home, move back in with her parents and find some low-paying job so she could spend the rest of her life paying back the debts she'd accumulated over the years for her school loans. She had worked her a** off to get this far only for it to end like this? What had been the point? Why? Why did she even bother? They were right; she would never amount to anything. She would never make it in this world and she was better off just staying in that shitty small town where everyone knew everything about everyone and would stab you in the back if you turned for even the slightest second, where the Confederate flag was proudly raised in nearly every house's front yard, where every family had a large monster truck covered in mud that they took out on the weekends when they went "campin' and muddin'". To a town where you would swear it was the norm for two people to already have the same last name when they married each other at the ripe old age of sixteen so it'd be easier to take care of their two year old child. There was no way she could go back to that town! That place disgusted her to her very core. She felt dirty just thinking about that horrid place. If she went back like this she would be humiliated and just be proving all of those bastards right. They'd mock her, laugh at her and chew her up then spit her out like used "chewin' tabaci" into their homemade spitting jars. Ugh. She hated that town with a passion. She'd rather die than go back to it.
Finally admitting failure, she pushed out of the doorway and closed the classroom, trudging through the halls. People who knew and saw her were concerned; they hadn't seen her during the exam and now they were seeing her walking through the halls with a look of pure despair on her face. She tuned them out, all of them; all she wanted to do was figure out what the hell she was supposed to do now.
Before she made it out of the building at all she was cut off by a stranger, someone she had never even seen a glimpse of before. She couldn't see their face; it was somehow hidden in shadow. "Lost, huh?" She didn't answer, merely frowned and tried to get around him. He had let her, stepping aside and turning to keep his eye on the girl who was walking away from him. "If you think your life is over, I have a proposition for you."
...What?
She stopped, looking over her shoulder. "A proposition?" She couldn't see his grin but she heard a dark chuckle.
"Yes, one I think you'll be very interested in. Walk with me, I'll explain it some more."
He told her she could change her life, she would be in control, and that she would never have to go back to that wretched town for as long as she lived. All she had to do was sign this waiver and she could have it all. Power, control, adventure..
She was willing to do anything at this point. And so...Candace Pennington signed her life away with a simple scribble of the pen. The next thing she remembered she was waking up, having no idea who she was or where she was, only that she was in a highlighter pink tent with twelve other people wearing pink armor and she was wearing a gas mask she couldn't remove.
She had become Epsilon Ten, the girl who thought nothing of turning on her own team and killing so many people. It hadn't been until the last minutes of her life that she had regained her humanity.
If only she could do it all over again. She would do things so much differently...
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
What was it?
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
What was it?
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
What was it!? She finally opened her eyes, closing them with a hiss and turning her face to hide it in her pillow. Ugh, the sun was out and way too bright. She must have forgotten to close her curtains before bed last night. Man! She'd been so tired!
Wait...why was the sun out? The sun shouldn't be out when she woke up. It should still be dark. Her entire day was planned out to the very last second; she was supposed to be up at 4am and then leave by 5am, so she could make it to class in time to settle before her 6am exam. A final exam. No, not just a final exam...the final exam. Her last ever final. After she passed that she could graduate. No, not could, would. She would pass and she would graduate.
With a cry of terror she sat up and grabbed her clock, reading the time and nearly crushing the clock in her trembling grip. It was noon. The exam was over. She'd slept through it and then some. She'd missed it...she'd missed the test...and there was no way to make it up. She was done. Finished. All these years wasted and for what? Sleep? She could sleep when she was dead! That's what she would say when someone told her to quit studying and go to bed. "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" She'd said. The clock smashed as it was thrown against the wall and she scrambled out of bed, her legs getting caught up in the sheet and sending her to the floor. She smacked her head against the front of her nightstand as she hit the ground and hissed with pain, somehow getting to her feet and rubbing at her head. ********, that'd hurt. Maybe if she was quick she could catch her professor before he left and explain the situation. Maybe he'd take pity on her? She was never late; she was the most prompt student he had who was always begging for more to do, more work to do, more credit to earn, more experience to gain. Surely he would take pity on her and let this one time slide? She wouldn't know for sure until she tried, and damn was she going to try. She'd do whatever it took...s**t, she'd sleep with the guy if that's what it took to get him to let her make up the exam.
She really, really, really hoped it didn't come to that.
Clothes were thrown on without any care of what they actually looked like together and her hair as pulled back in lieu of actually brushing it. She didn't even bother with the rest of her morning routine. There was no time. The damn traffic added an extra half an hour onto what would've been a half hour drive! Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT! Would he even be there? She hoped he'd be there. The classroom was right around the corner, she ran to it as fast as she humanly could. Where were the magic powers when she needed them? She needed super-human speed right now. She needed to be able to fly. She needed to be able to phase, teleport, shove, even cut through the crowds of students around her. Heh. Imagine how easy things would be if she could cut down everyone in her path like a farmer reaping wheat with a scythe. Finally she made it to the room and shoved through the door. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so, SO sorry! Please give me another chance! I promise I...won't..." She panted heavily as she stood in the now open doorway, one hand on the doorknob and the other supporting her against the door frame. The room was completely empty, not even a bit of paper left on the large desk in the front of the room. His office was closed and most likely locked; he never closed his office if he was in the room or coming back in just a few minutes. If the door to his office was closed that could only mean one thing.
She was too late. Her life was over before it could even truly begin. She'd failed, she'd messed up everything. She'd have to go back home, move back in with her parents and find some low-paying job so she could spend the rest of her life paying back the debts she'd accumulated over the years for her school loans. She had worked her a** off to get this far only for it to end like this? What had been the point? Why? Why did she even bother? They were right; she would never amount to anything. She would never make it in this world and she was better off just staying in that shitty small town where everyone knew everything about everyone and would stab you in the back if you turned for even the slightest second, where the Confederate flag was proudly raised in nearly every house's front yard, where every family had a large monster truck covered in mud that they took out on the weekends when they went "campin' and muddin'". To a town where you would swear it was the norm for two people to already have the same last name when they married each other at the ripe old age of sixteen so it'd be easier to take care of their two year old child. There was no way she could go back to that town! That place disgusted her to her very core. She felt dirty just thinking about that horrid place. If she went back like this she would be humiliated and just be proving all of those bastards right. They'd mock her, laugh at her and chew her up then spit her out like used "chewin' tabaci" into their homemade spitting jars. Ugh. She hated that town with a passion. She'd rather die than go back to it.
Finally admitting failure, she pushed out of the doorway and closed the classroom, trudging through the halls. People who knew and saw her were concerned; they hadn't seen her during the exam and now they were seeing her walking through the halls with a look of pure despair on her face. She tuned them out, all of them; all she wanted to do was figure out what the hell she was supposed to do now.
Before she made it out of the building at all she was cut off by a stranger, someone she had never even seen a glimpse of before. She couldn't see their face; it was somehow hidden in shadow. "Lost, huh?" She didn't answer, merely frowned and tried to get around him. He had let her, stepping aside and turning to keep his eye on the girl who was walking away from him. "If you think your life is over, I have a proposition for you."
...What?
She stopped, looking over her shoulder. "A proposition?" She couldn't see his grin but she heard a dark chuckle.
"Yes, one I think you'll be very interested in. Walk with me, I'll explain it some more."
He told her she could change her life, she would be in control, and that she would never have to go back to that wretched town for as long as she lived. All she had to do was sign this waiver and she could have it all. Power, control, adventure..
She was willing to do anything at this point. And so...Candace Pennington signed her life away with a simple scribble of the pen. The next thing she remembered she was waking up, having no idea who she was or where she was, only that she was in a highlighter pink tent with twelve other people wearing pink armor and she was wearing a gas mask she couldn't remove.
She had become Epsilon Ten, the girl who thought nothing of turning on her own team and killing so many people. It hadn't been until the last minutes of her life that she had regained her humanity.
If only she could do it all over again. She would do things so much differently...
